A MILESTONE was reached for air rescue in Shenzhen as the Shenzhen Municipal Traffic Police Bureau inked deals with an aviation company in Shanghai named Kingwings to cooperate in helicopter rescues Tuesday, the Shenzhen Evening News reported.

    It is considered a necessity to develop air rescue in Shenzhen as the city now possesses 3.24 million vehicles with 3.5 million people having driver’s licenses, which has made traffic congestion a part of daily life in the city.

    Even during holidays, traffic in eastern Shenzhen has been a problem. A large number of car-owning beachgoers drive to seaside parks in Yantian, Dapeng and Longgang districts, which causes congested traffic every summer, making air rescue a necessity when accidents take place.

    A traffic police officer, Lu Yang, said that Shenzhen’s traffic police would now be able to contact the Kingwings company when rescues by ambulance are impossible, and the company would dispatch helicopters to assist in transporting people from accident sites to hospitals.

    China is still in the development stage of air rescue and Shenzhen now has only a handful of hospitals that are qualified to handle helicopter rescue. These hospitals include Shenzhen No. 3 People’s Hospital, Peking University Shenzhen Hospital and University of Hong Kong Shenzhen Hospital.

    It was reported that all rescue helicopters are equipped with professional medical equipment and function as an ICU in the air. Besides, helicopters are more stable than vehicles, which helps avoid secondary injuries caused by bumpy ambulance travel.

    The city’s rescue center also said that it would fully cooperate with the traffic police bureau and the aviation company to build a professional and standard air rescue system.

    The average cost for helicopter rescue is around 40,000 to 70,000 yuan (US$5,800 to 10,151) per hour. (Zhang Qian)